ho accompanied Hobson into Santiago harbor were
Negroes. Matt Henson was the only man with Peary at the Pole. John
Jordan fired the first shot from Dewey's flagship "Olympia," opening the
battle of Manila. The Negro wanted change because in 1914 the naval
administration reluctantly offered Negroes positions as messmen and
cooks. No seamen, no members of the merchant marine, no petty officers,
no lieutenants, might apply.

In the American Treasury Department, an ex-Senator of the United States,
a colored man, Blanche K. Bruce of Mississippi, was honored by having
created for him the office of register of the treasury. Subsequently the
honor was conferred as a political favor upon Judson W. Lyons, of
Georgia; William T. Vernon, of Kansas, and J.C. Napier, of Tennessee.
The democratic executive was good enough to offer this position, created
as a direct result of the Negro's activities during and after the Civil
War, to Adam E. Patterson, of Oklahoma. But so great was the pressure
from opposing political forces that the name was withdrawn and another
position of honor lost to the race. Ralph W. Tyler, auditor of the navy,
resigned his position in 1912. A white man was appointed in his place.
Screens were erected in this department, shutting the Negro from the
view of his erstwhile fellow-clerk. He was sent down in the cellar to
emphasize his degradation as he attended to his physical wants. The
Negro cried aloud for change, and in his heart he cared not how soon
this change should come, nor what form it should take.

The American Post-office Department, by 1914, had taken over the bulk of
the express service of the United States. The Negro was found available
as a clerk, but seldom, if ever, as a foreman. The appointment of large
numbers of Negroes to mere clerical positions did not mean to the Negro
recognition of merit. The Negro postmaster had disappeared.

The American Department of the Interior is engaged with domestic affairs
of the nation. The Negro constitutes one-tenth of the population and
requires one-tenth of the necessities of American life. In 1914, a
definite attempt was made in a bureau of this department to give the
Negro recognition, honor and near-equality by the policy of segregating
him into a Negro bureau. This policy had previously been worked out in
Negro school systems and in the army. But the Negro clerks of the
Interior Department, by unanimous vote, rejected the proposition for
this sort of ch